#222
Transcendence (2)
Though the Elven Kingdom had overcome the crisis of continental collapse thanks to Harris’s exploits, the aftermath of this incident was by no means small.
Not to mention the massive casualties from the invasion of the Lycanthropes and giants, they now had to prepare additional countermeasures due to the numerous rifts that had appeared throughout the outskirts.
Still, a reliable pillar to protect the World Tree had been born in the form of a new High Elf Transcendent, and the rifts near the borders could receive support from neighboring countries, so it wasn’t a situation that could be called the worst.
The truly worst off right now wasn’t the Enamel Continent, but the Ion Continent.
It was human territory that was deteriorating by the hour due to the Undead King’s relentless offensive.
Kwa-bang—! Puh-ung!
Flames erupted throughout the village and deafening explosions burst forth.
“Kyaaack!”
“Run! We have to get outside the city quickly... *cough*!”
“Mom... Mom...!”
People fled in a panic.
Clang! Clack!
[Kieek!]
Crunch—!
And undead forces that slaughtered the defending troops blocking their way, finally charging into the village and running amok.
It was a tragedy beyond compare, but by now, incidents of this magnitude were not uncommon on the Ion Continent.
No matter how much the Saint warned them of attack locations in advance, there was a limit to merely defending, so it was inevitable that some places would eventually break under the continued wave of offensives.
This happened especially frequently in weaker nations, and eventually, the three kingdoms of the western continent swallowed their pride and signed a treaty with the Talia Kingdom to first request aid from the vampires.
Of course, needless to say, they had to concede much to them in the process.
But even while everyone was struggling, there were those who moved more busily than ever and showed results incomparable to others.
The saviors who maintained an undefeated streak of consecutive victories, the hope of the continent led by the Saint of the Lord’s Church...
Kwa-bang—!
[Keuaark!]
“Kahahaha! Die!”
...It was the Hero Party.
Inside a crevice already filled to the brim with swarming undead.
Standing at the center of a massive crater, Halli held a Death Knight in his large hand, pinned to the ground, and smiled viciously while looking at its head.
[Grrr... Impossible... My sword could only manage a scratch!]
An oppressive aura burst from the enraged Death Knight in an instant, and dark mana rising violently burrowed into the body of the one gripping its head.
It was a technique combining offense and defense into one that would kill an ordinary person upon contact, and even a warrior who had reached the pinnacle would be engulfed in curses if they didn’t coat their body in aura, but...
[How can you with your bare body...!]
Against Halli’s flesh—the “Ultimate Evolved Lifeform” that had already surpassed completion and was setting new highs with each passing day—such a level of attack was nowhere near enough to penetrate.
Without even needing to raise his energy, all substandard attacks were bounced away by the bio-energy and madness flowing within his body.
“Huh? No, no! You did well. I didn’t think you’d actually be able to wound this body! Khahat!”
Though he was the weakest, that Death Knight was still an executive-class commander dispatched from the Undead Fortress.
He had completely swept the initial target point and remained until the end, receiving continuous undead reinforcements using his own body as a coordinate—a master-class figure who had rampaged across the southern region of the Lesc Kingdom.
All he had managed was to leave a few scratches on Halli’s body that had already regenerated without a trace.
A meager result unfitting for the prestige of one who had cut down countless strong warriors of the Lesc Kingdom.
Crunch—!
Under Halli’s grip, the Death Knight’s helmet began to crumple pathetically.
Naturally, it was a metal that couldn’t even be properly scratched without an aura of equal grade, but before overwhelming strength, such generalities were meaningless.
[G-giiik! You, Apostle of Madness! The Undead King will not tolerate you...!]
“Yeah, no.”
Kwajijik!
The moment his fist clenched, metal debris squished out between his fingers.
What had been a helmet twisted into an unsightly shape like clay held by a child and rolled across the ground.
“Hm! This should be enough.”
He casually tore the breastplate and crushed the dark mana-flowing heart as well, then dusted off his hands lightly and stood up from his spot.
The undead clinging annoyingly around him were simply flung away like they’d been hit by a truck just from him lightly shaking his body.
Casually crushing the undead with swinging hands and feet, he smacked his lips while watching his comrades wipe out the remaining undead.
‘This one was a bit fun, but still not enough.’
Right after ascending to Transcendence, the impulse that formed a major axis of his personality had grown uncontrollably.
From then on, there was only one thing he wanted.
A fierce life-or-death battle against a strong enemy, delicious and nutritious meat in abundance, the instinct to smash everything blocking his path, and the desire to show his true self to the world, and...
‘Huh? That’s not one thing? Well, whatever!’
His desires were being met to some degree even now, but that didn’t mean he was satisfied.
He was barely, forcibly, with utmost effort... suppressing his impulses by pulling together the last shreds of his reason.
‘Ah, I want to storm the Undead Fortress! There are so many strong guys there, how fun would that be? The King’s Essence worked pretty well too. If I had hunted and eaten it myself, I would’ve felt even better. Come to think of it, I’ve almost finished the dragon meat too; wonder if any are hiding somewhere? Maybe I should become a dragon hunter now?’
Fragmentary thoughts centered on interest swept through his simplified mind and vanished.
While lost endlessly in such stray thoughts, his gaze suddenly turned toward a desert visible to one side.
‘But when am I going to the south... That Great Chieftain guy there, he’s probably strong? Oh right, that old hag is probably waiting for me. Huh? She isn’t thinking I ran away because I got scared, is she? Oho?’
This place was the southernmost region of the Lesc Kingdom, located in the southwestern part of the continent.
In other words, it was adjacent to the desert leading to the Southern Tribal Alliance.
‘...Maybe I should just.’
The moment he thought his target was right before his eyes, the impulse he had been barely suppressing surged up all at once.
And with a snap, his thin patience, which he had been struggling to maintain under the influence of the other Avatars, broke.
The corner of Halli’s mouth slowly rose, revealing sharp fangs.
***
The Undead Fortress was bustling with preparations for invasions that now occurred daily.
However, its lord had left all proceedings to his subordinates and was simply sitting on the great hall’s throne, lost in quiet thought.
-Heinrich: Halli! Where are you going again! Didn’t I tell you to wait a little longer!
-Halli: Uwahaha! I’ve held back long enough! I’ll go and rip that guy’s neck off quickly!
-Heinz II: I wish I could handle things that easily. These Obaipo bastards maintain such complicated collusive relationships that I can’t even tell where to start cutting. If I cut them all out, it would lead to war.
-Hubert: I suppose Brocoslack must have been quite impressed when he devoured the Talia Kingdom. He even looks more sophisticated now. Seems he did a lot of research while hiding.
-Hugo: Um, shouldn’t we stop Halli first...
-Howard: Hmph! That guy probably won’t die easily now anyway, so who cares. Rather, I heard a mineral called Detrium is only found in the southern desert, so pick some up while you’re at it! It’s already hard to get because it’s an export-prohibited item, and this time the smuggling routes are all blocked too, so even Hubert can’t get his hands on it.
The mental exchanges busily came and went as usual.
They were resorting to such a complicated method because there was no main body to serve as the center, but by now, a full day had already passed in Earth’s time.
Having roughly estimated through Hugo that about three days remained until Baron would wake, they thought he might open his eyes in as little as half a month.
[Hmm, half a month.]
The Undead King Hannibal Strauss, newly realizing that fact, took a moment of serious reflection once again.
While watching the Enamel Continent incident, he had been greatly impressed and had realized one thing.
‘...Haven’t I achieved too little all this time. I was indeed too soft. I thought I was acting purely for profit, but it seems the memories remaining in this body had an unconscious influence.’
He had merely sent subordinates to engulf every corner of the continent in the flames of war.
The Oath Against Heaven, which he had looked down upon and considered merely an obstacle, had devised a plan to completely submerge a continent, and had even put it into action!
They had even come close to success; if Harris, backed by the World Tree, hadn’t intervened, things might have truly gone their way.
How much karma could he have earned if that had happened....
Crack!
The armrest of the bone-crafted throne was crushed by Hans’s 「Monstrous Strength」.
For him, who replaced all activity with dark mana, lacking muscles was no great issue.
‘My pride is wounded. To think that I, the Undead King, am inferior to those bastards!’
Admiring them was one thing; accepting it was another matter entirely.
He had to be the true mastermind of this world!
He had achieved consecutive victories every time he clashed with the Oath Against Heaven, and had brought a considerable number under his command, so he had underestimated them a bit...
‘Yes, I shouldn’t have thought that way about people capable of opening the Abyss and unleashing madness. It was certainly a mistake. I must acknowledge what needs to be acknowledged.’
Now that introspection was over, next came course correction.
He wanted to ignore promises and march south with his army right away, but if he did, he would likely suffer losses the moment the main body awoke.
Once started, he would have to push relentlessly without rest to gain more than the prestige Heinrich had lost, but the main body didn’t seem likely to continue tolerating large-scale warfare.
‘But there’s no time to devise another scheme now. They said it was a plan prepared over at least ten years.’
His head, submerged in deep thought, began to spin rapidly.
Starting from the most impressive—the outbreak of abyssal madness—to the recent princess kidnapping incident, the Lycanthropes’ invasion of the Enamel Continent, the Tribal Alliance declaring a severance of diplomatic ties and preparing for war, and the Republic showing suspicious movements after being infiltrated by the Obaipo Clan.
Given the scale of events that had occurred so far, the schemes yet to unfold would undoubtedly have tremendous impact.
If so...
‘Yes, I shall claim it all for myself entirely.’
Of course, since karma followed strict causality, simply adding a spoon to an already completed plan wouldn’t earn a satisfactory amount.
It would be better than not doing it at all... but if he was going to do it, he might as well do it properly.
Having reached that conclusion, he moved to action immediately without waiting.
-Heinrich: Wait, Hans! What in the world are you planning to do! Things are excessive enough as it is! Any more major problems...!
The annoying ego who always pursued the righteous path and only spoke proper words, Heinrich, began to clamor noisily at that.
That was not enough to stop his resolve.
-Hannibal Strauss: Hmm, though it is late to mention it, allow me to correct one thing. This body is not Hans, but Hannibal Strauss.
-Heinrich: Didn’t you agree to give up on that by now....
Ignoring the thoughts still buzzing in his head, he finished long-distance travel using the Undead Fortress and slowly looked around.
A bright moon and countless stars floating in the night sky, and sand dunes that sparkled and crumbled under their light.
And far in the distance, a desert city revealing its presence brightly with countless torches even at midnight.
This was the Kalkos Tribal Alliance that Halli was targeting and heading toward.
And within it, ‘Beorsen’—the base of the chieftain and the center of the coup that he had identified through lengthy intelligence gathering.
Ding-ding-ding-ding—!
“Emergency! Emergency! Everyone to battle stations!”
“Shamans, wake the Berserkers immediately!”
Woooong—
Perhaps because it was an important stronghold, they had prepared thoroughly.
As soon as he appeared, the city grew noisy, and all of Beorsen began to be covered in a strange barrier.
[Khhrhhrh— As expected, I am pleased. If they were incompetent, there would be no need to take them in the first place.]
The Undead King who had suddenly raided the south.
He had stuck a huge ladle... no, a shovel into the smoothly proceeding plan.
With the momentum to flip the entire table if they didn’t hand it over obediently.